White Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake

For Chirstmas dessert I wanted to make a cheesecake, and this year I wanted to make something that I am not allergic to...something without nuts. So I came up with this white chocolate caramel cheesecake. I hope everyone likes it.

Crust:
30 Anna's Ginger Cookies
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
4 tbsp. unsalted butter


Filling:
6 oz. white chocolate (get the good stuff) finely chopped
3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, room temp.
1/2 lb. Neufchatel cheese, room temp
5 lg. eggs, room temp
3/4 c. sugar
3 tbsp. all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

For Crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Double wrap outside of 10 or 12 inch spring form pan with heavy duty aluminum foil, covering bottom and up sides to catch any batter leakage. In food processor, process cookies to fine crumbs. Pour crumbs into spring form pan. With hands, mix in melted butter and brown sugar until crumbs hold together; use your knuckles to press crumb mixture up sides and over bottom of pan. Bake 10 minutes. Cool.


FOR FILLING: Melt chocolate in double boiler over simmering water, stirring until smooth. Cool to lukewarm. Using electric mixer, beat cheeses in large bowl until smooth. Blend in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in sugar, flour, vanilla extract. Stir 1 cup of mixture into lukewarm white chocolate; mix into remaining filling in bowl.
Pour filling over crust. Bake until cheesecake is firm around edges but still moves slightly in center when pan is shaken, about 40 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool completely. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

To make it caramel, top the cheesecake with a pretty caramel pattern using caramel syrup.